Kristol was one of the signatories to the January 26, 1998, PNAC letter[7] sent to President Bill Clinton urging him "to seize that opportunity" in his upcoming State of the Union "to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power."

He was "one of the architects of the blueprint for regime change found in the [September 2000] document[8] 'Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century'"[9]

Kristol said in a January 14, 2003, PBSFrontline interview "that the significance of President George W. Bush's State of the Union address in 2002 (the 'axis of evil' speech) is too easily forgotten -- that it was a rare moment, 'the creation of a new American foreign policy' -- and that Bush deserves credit for realizing very quickly after Sept. 11 that his presidency would be judged by how he handled the post-9/11 threat of weapons of mass destruction."[11]

Kristol is co-author with Lawrence F. Kaplan of The War Over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and America’s Mission.